Kabul (Reuters) - The Afghan president is angry at being kept in the dark over a deal to free five Taliban leaders in exchange for a captured U.S. soldier, and accuses Washington of failing to back a peace plan for the war-torn country, a senior source said on Monday. The five prisoners were flown to Qatar on Sunday as part of a secret agreement to release Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who left Afghanistan for Germany on the same day. :snip: "The president is now even more distrustful of U.S. intentions in the country," said the source close to President Hamid...

1.) If they believe that the Taliban aren't terrorists, then is this behind their reasoning that no negotiations took place with terrorists in the release of Bowe Bergdahl for 5 GITMO detainees? 2.) If they state that there was a third party involved (Qatar) and thus neither side (the WH or the Taliban) spoke directly with each other, then does that constitute their position that no negotiations took place with terrorists? The problem with #1 is that when the WH slammed Karzai over some of his statements concerning joining the Taliban, what could/can the WH say to Karzai now? Breitbart.com...

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said the U.S. did not negotiate with terrorists in the process of exchanging the transfer of five terrorism suspects for the release of the only American prisoner of war in Afghanistan. “We didn’t negotiate with terrorists,” Mr. Hagel said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And I said and explained before, Sergeant Bergdahl is a prisoner of war. That’s a normal process in getting your prisoners back.” Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was handed over to U.S. special forces by the Taliban Saturday, with the government of Qatar serving as a go-between. Qatar is taking custody of five...

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told Greta Van Susteren on Monday, “A trained ape can get a status of forces agreement. It does not take a genius.” Rumsfeld was talking about Barack Obama’s failed diplomacy in Iraq and Afghanistan. CNS News reported: Donald Rumsfeld, who served as U.S. Defense Secretary under President George W. Bush, blames poor diplomacy by the Obama administration for the current strained relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. “Our relationship with Karzai and with Afghanistan was absolutely first-rate in the Bush administration,” Rumsfeld told Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren on Monday. “It has gone down...

Donald Rumsfeld: 'It does not take a genius' By: Tal Kopan March 25, 2014 06:13 AM EDT Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is blasting the Obama administration’s handling of Afghanistan, saying a “trained ape” could have done a better job in diplomatic relations with the country. “We have status of forces agreements probably with 100, 125 countries in the world,” Rumsfeld said Monday night on “On the Record with Greta van Susteren” on Fox News. “This administration, the White House and the State Department, have failed to get a status of forces agreement. A trained ape could get a status...

(CNSNews.com) - Donald Rumsfeld, who served as U.S. Defense Secretary under President George W. Bush, blames poor diplomacy by the Obama administration for the current strained relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai."Our relationship with Karzai and with Afghanistan was absolutely first-rate in the Bush administration," Rumsfeld told Fox News's Greta Van Susteren on Monday. "It has gone down hill like a toboggan ever since the Obama administration came in."

Last week, Taliban militants stormed into the Serena Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing nine including children. The Serena was one of most heavily secured buildings in Kabul. The attack there follows many Taliban attacks on Afghan civilians and US forces, as well as Afghan forces attacks on American troops there. But today, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai insists that “foreign intelligence agencies” are responsible for the Serena attack. The Afghan government held foreign agencies of intelligence responsible for an attack against a luxury hotel in this city that left nine fatalities and various injured. President Hamid Karzai’s management denied that groups...

KABUL, Afghanistan — Advocates say that women’s rights and security in Afghanistan are under mounting assault from all sides — the Taliban insurgency and the government alike — putting at risk 12 years of hard-won gains for women here. The country’s Parliament is about to approve legislation that would strip away crucial legal protections. The insurgents have mounted a string of violent attacks on female officials. And advocates for women are deeply worried by the news that President Hamid Karzai has been negotiating secretly with the Taliban, who enforced hard-line, fundamentalist restrictions on women during their years in power. And...

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has been engaged in secret contacts with the Taliban about reaching a peace agreement without the involvement of his American and Western allies, further corroding already strained relations with the United States. The secret contacts appear to help explain a string of actions by Mr. Karzai that seem intended to antagonize his American backers, Western and Afghan officials said. In recent weeks, Mr. Karzai has continued to refuse to sign a long-term security agreement with Washington that he negotiated, insisted on releasing hardened Taliban militants from prison and distributed distorted evidence of what he called...

Susan Boyle revealed she has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. The Scottish singer who shot to worldwide fame in 2009 with her jaw-dropping performance on "Britain's Got Talent" was diagnosed last year, but has now decided to reveal her news publicly for the first time. Speaking to the Observer newspaper, Boyle said, "It was the wrong diagnosis when I was a kid. "I was told I had brain damage. I always knew it was an unfair label. Now I have a clearer understanding of what's wrong and I feel relieved and a bit more relaxed about myself." Asperger's has...

President Hamid Karzai’s government is considering bringing back stoning for adultery—and imposing 100 lashes (which is a death sentence) for unmarried people who have had sexual relations. Thus, Afghan men can marry female children, keep male children as sex-toys, maintain four wives, and visit prostitutes from dawn to dawn. But it is a capital crime if an Afghan man dishonors another Afghan man by having relations with his female “property;” and, if he has raped the poor wife, she is also to be stoned. Worse yet, if two young Afghans meet and fall in love on their own and have...

The Obama administration has more trouble with its diplomacy than just regarding Iran. Last week, the White House let it be known that they had all but concluded a pact with Afghanistan to keep as many as 15,000 troops, mostly American, in place until 2024, a decade longer than Barack Obama promised when he launched his own surge strategy in late 2009. Almost immediately after going out on that political limb, Hamid Karzai began to saw it off, insisting that the issue had to be brought before tribal elders and that Karzai himself wouldn’t sign it either way, a direct...

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign a security deal with the United States, the White House said, and Washington may have to resort to the "zero option" of withdrawing all American troops from the strife-torn country next year, as it did in Iraq. Karzai told U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice in Kabul on Monday that the United States must put an immediate end to military raids on Afghan homes and demonstrate its commitment to peace talks before he would sign a bilateral security pact, Karzai's spokesman said. The White House said Karzai had outlined new conditions in...

KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai told tribal leaders Thursday that he did not trust the United States, hours after Secretary of State John Kerry said a final draft deal on troop levels had been reached. "My trust with America is not good," Karzai said at a meeting of tribal elders and political leaders in Kabul. "I don't trust them and they don't trust me. During the past 10 years I have fought with them and they have made propaganda against me." Civilian war casualties in Afghanistan rose 45 percent over the last year, with hospitals treating children who have...

One of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's main religious advisers will not overturn a decree issued by clerics in the north reimposing Taliban-style curbs on women, in another sign of returning conservatism as NATO forces leave the country. The eight article decree, issued late in June, bars women from leaving home without a male relative, while shutting cosmetic shops on the pretext they were being used for prostitution - an accusation residents and police reject. "There is no way these shops could have stayed open. Shops are for business, not adultery," Enayatullah Baligh, a member of the top religious panel, the...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai now says his recent comments suggesting collusion between the U.S. and Taliban were misinterpreted by “the media,” and that explanation appeared to satisfy Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday, even though the contentious remarks were made during a nationally televised speech. Moreover, Karzai made similar insinuations during a meeting in Helmand province two days after the original March 10 speech, according to Afghan and U.S. media reports. After Karzai told reporters in Kabul Monday that his words had been misinterpreted, Kerry said he was “very, very comfortable with the president’s explanation.” … If Karzai’s words...

Turkey is emerging as the new player in the unfolding Afghanistan peace process. As Afghanistan and Pakistan work on a peace roadmap, with the active assistance and blessings of London and Washington, Turkey has stepped in, even offering to host senior Taliban leaders released by Pakistan for reconciliation talks with the Afghan government. Although India is not part of the deal, India will be deeply affected by the outcome of whatever political process is implemented in Afghanistan. And with a strong presence on the ground in Afghanistan, India will be keen to ensure its own red lines about the accommodation...

“What I want to say is that he was never an extremist, neither in his private nor political life. He believed that a modern moderate Islam could work in Afghanistan. He said that the extreme left or right failed in Afghanistan, since both had neglected the needs of the people. Therefore, we could not govern Afghanistan like any traditional Muslim country.” -Ahmad Wali Massoud regarding Ahmed Massoud Shah of the Northern Alliance. In 1996, funded financially and backed morally by their allies in Pakistan, the Taliban (”Students of Islamic Knowledge Movement”) emerged as the prominent force in Afghanistan after the...

As President Obama prepares to unveil his long-deliberated war strategy, the Taliban's supreme commander declared today that U.S.-led forces would find only defeat, dishonor and "a bed of thorns" in Afghanistan. The warning, contained in a statement by Mullah Mohammed Omar , the movement's reclusive leader, was issued on the eve of one of the year's most important Muslim holidays, Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice. It marks the end of the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, which is made by millions of observant Muslims. In his missive -- punctuated by the flowery phrases and high-flown rhetoric typically...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says his country's strategic partnership signed with India is not meant as an aggressive move against Pakistan. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, right, and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai pose before a meeting in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011. Karzai is on a two-day official visit to India.(AP Photo/Gurinder Osan) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, right, and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, address the media after a signing of agreement meeting in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011.This is Karzai's second trip to India this year and comes just days after he accused neighboring Pakistan...

The leaders of Afghanistan and India have signed a strategic partnership agreement during a visit by President Hamid Karzai to Delhi.Mr Karzai met Indian PM Manmohan Singh, who said violence in Afghanistan was undermining security in South Asia. He also said that India would "stand by Afghanistan" when foreign troops withdraw from the country in 2014. Mr Karzai's visit follows a series of attacks which have damaged ties between Kabul and India's rival, Pakistan. Correspondents say the increasingly close relationship between Kabul and Delhi will be viewed with some suspicion by Pakistan, which sees Afghanistan as its backyard.

Indian media is reporting that Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi is serving as a key mediator in secret talks between the U.S. and the Taliban. According to an article in The Hindu: Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Doha-based Islamist scholar who once called on his followers to back jihadist groups in Jammu and Kashmir, has emerged as a key mediator in secret talks between the U.S. and the Taliban, government sources have told The Hindu. In 2009, Mr. al-Qaradawi had issued a fatwa, or religious edict, asserting that “the Kashmiris were properly fighting jihad against the Indian army.” The jihad was...

The West will subsidise Afghan security forces by more than $4 billion a year after US-led troops leave in 2014, President Hamid Karzai said Thursday, implicitly accepting a cut in the planned size of his military. Western officials told AFP that no final agreements had been reached on funding or on the size of Afghanistan's security forces after combat troops in NATO's US-led International Security Assistance Force withdraw. But Karzai told a graduation ceremony at a military academy in Kabul: "It's set that post 2014, for the next 10 years until 2024, the international community, with the US in the...

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai cast doubt Friday on the account of events given by U.S. authorities as he met with the families of 16 civilians allegedly killed by a U.S. soldier. In his meeting at the presidential palace in Kabul, Karzai suggested the Americans had not been frank about what happened. "We tried to talk to the soldier involved, but there was no cooperation from America," Karzai told the villagers. "Based on what you are saying, the killer was not just one person." The soldier, whose identity has been withheld by U.S. authorities, is accused of...

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters today that the Obama Administration will not release the president’s THREE PAGE Apology letter to Hamid Karzai. The Tatler reported: The White House press secretary told members of the press pool aboard Air Force One today that President Obama’s “sincere” apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for a Koran-burning incident “is not appropriate to show” to reporters. Jay Carney spoke with reporters for about 20 minutes as the presidential entourage flew to Florida for a speech on energy at the University of Miami. Obama’s letter to Karzai that included the apology was “a...

With the clock ticking on her final term in office, Rep. Lynn Woolsey visited Point Reyes Station Thursday night and shared some frank opinions on Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, President Obama and the Occupy movement. SNIP Press asked Woolsey for her assessment of Newt Gingrich, since they served together in Congress. Woolsey said, "He's got a brain but he overreaches; he's too big for his own good. He would be the worst president on earth." Press asked Woolsey if that meant she would prefer a President Michele Bachmann. "Probably, because — well she's...

ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan would support Pakistan in case of military conflict between Pakistan and the United States, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview to a private Pakistani TV channel broadcast on Saturday. The remarks were in sharp contrast to recent tension between the two neighbors over cross-border raids, and Afghan accusations that Pakistan was involved in killing the chief Afghan peace envoy, former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, by a suicide bomber on September 20. "God forbid, If ever there is a war between Pakistan and America, Afghanistan will side with Pakistan," he said in the interview to Geo...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's president said Monday that Pakistan has broken promises to help end the Taliban-led insurgency but that he hopes the two countries can work together like brothers — softening his rhetoric after days of tough talk in which he had suggested relations were about to break down. The two countries' relations have become increasingly strained since the assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani two weeks ago. A host of Afghan officials have publicly accused Pakistan and its spy agency of supporting the militants who killed Rabbani. And Afghan President Hamid Karzai has suspended a series...

The breakdown in the talks at such an early stage has led to recriminations and claims that the details of the meetings and the identity of the Taliban's chief negotiator were deliberately leaked by 'paranoid' Afghan government figures. Absolute confidentiality had been a key condition for the meetings which were held in Germany and Qatar earlier this year between Tayeb Agha, Taliban leader Mullah Omar's former private secretary, and senior officials from the US State Department and Central Intelligence Agency. The meetings were chaired by Michael Steiner, Germany's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The talks were described as a...

The half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been killed in an assassination attempt, officials say. Ahmad Wali Karzai, the younger half-brother of the Afghan president and leader of the Kandahar Provincial Council, was shot dead, presidential spokesmen Waheed Omar told the BBC. Initial reports suggest he was shot by his bodyguard in his house in Kandahar. A controversial politician, some saw him as a defender of Pashtun rights. Critics said he was a warlord mired in corruption who was openly involved in the drugs trade and had a personal militia at his disposal. The president repeatedly defended him, denouncing...

Two female members of the Afghanistan Parliament got into a physical fight Tuesday following a discussion of rocket attacks from Pakistan. General Nazifa Zaki, a former army general, threw her shoe at fellow MP Hamida Ahmadzai, video from parliament showed. The video, posted online by TOLOnews.com, shows Zaki leave her seat to head toward Ahmadzai, who throws a water bottle at Zaki when she gets close. Zaki punches Ahmadzai, and the two begin to tussle. ... What began as a discussion took a turn for the worse when one of the coalitions in parliament, including members who are accused of...

WASHINGTON — In most administrations, "leaks" of classified information precipitate presidential ire. Nearly all such unauthorized disclosures are the consequence of disgruntled government employees deciding that a "leak" is the best way to stop some activity they have decided should not continue. To justify their unlawful actions, they call themselves "secret whistle-blowers." The so-called "mainstream media" love them. Most American presidents do not. That's what makes the current commander in chief's reactions to a whole series of "leaks" so unusual. President Barack Obama doesn't seem to be concerned at all. President Ronald Reagan was infuriated by the publication and broadcast...

Reading "Masters and Commanders," Andrew Roberts's magnificent account of British and American leaders in World War II, I was struck by how many of them, working prodigious hours and under great strain, were struck down by heart attacks while in their 60s. This doesn't happen anymore, I thought, with the blood pressure and cholesterol medicines many of us routinely take. But it does, as we were reminded by the sudden death at age 69 this week of Richard Holbrooke, who was working prodigiously as Barack Obama's special representative for AfPak, i.e., Afghanistan and Pakistan. Holbrooke was known in cynical Washington...

U.S. Military leaders are prepared to back Afghan President Hamid Karzai's timeline for U.S. troop withdrawal, saying in roundtable meeting with reporters Monday that Afghan security forces should be able to handle the country's security on their own by 2014. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the withdrawal timeline will discussed further at an upcoming NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal at the end of the month. "One of the agenda items for the Lisbon summit is to embrace president Karzai's goal of completing the transfer of security responsibility to Afghanistan by 2014," the Pentagon chief said. Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, head...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- One evening last August, as President Hamid Karzai wrapped up an official visit to Iran, his personal plane sat on the airport tarmac, waiting for a late-running passenger: Iran's ambassador to Afghanistan. The ambassador, Feda Hussein Maliki, finally appeared, taking a seat next to Umar Daudzai, Karzai's chief of staff and his most trusted confidant. According to an Afghan official on the plane, Maliki handed Daudzai a large plastic bag bulging with packets of euro bills. A second Afghan official confirmed that Daudzai carried home a large bag of cash. "This is the Iranian money," said an...

Barack Obama's foreign policy has been defined so far by his attempts to "engage" with adversaries or rivals of the United States, such as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia. The results have been mixed. But now the president's focus is visibly shifting. In the next 18 months, Obama's record abroad will be made or broken by his ability to do business with two nominal U.S. allies: Hamid Karzai and Binyamin Netanyahu. Both men are prickly and somewhat inscrutable... And Obama has not done well. In fact, his treatment of the Israeli and Afghan leaders during...

A former UN ambassador to Afghanistan has questioned the 'mental stability' of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and suggested that he may be using drugs. Peter Galbraith, the former deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, has made the allegations concerning Karzai in a classified UN report about life in the presidential palace in Kabul.

IN February, the Taliban sanctuary of Marja in southern Afghanistan was attacked in the largest operation of the war. Last week, President Obama flew to Afghanistan and declared, “Our troops have pushed the Taliban out of their stronghold in Marja .... The United States of America does not quit once it starts on something.” But what is that “something”? And, equally important, does Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, have to be a part of it? The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, was guilty of understatement last fall when he told Washington that “Karzai is not an adequate strategic partner.”...

Is this finally the last straw? Will we now wake up, and realize that we have no Muslim allies? They are using us for our money, and to gain power. In the end they will stand with Islam against us. It is time to bring the troops home, drill where we can, and end all Muslim immigration and aid. As I have been saying for years, it will be us or them. There will be no middle ground, so take a side.

Afghan leader Hamid Karzai's charges of UN rigging in last year's election show that he is divorced from reality and a hindrance to international efforts, an ex-envoy singled out in the criticism says. Karzai, using strong language, said that the former UN deputy head of mission in Afghanistan, Peter Galbraith, had threatened a senior election official with harsh consequences should he announce results in Karzai's favour. Galbraith, contacted by AFP, said he at first thought that Karzai's comments were an April Fool's Day joke. "It's obviously absurd and preposterous. It just underscores how unreliable Karzai is as an ally," Galbraith...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai left for Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss his reintegration plan aimed at persuading Taliban militants to switch sides. Saudi Arabia was one of the few countries that recognized the Taliban regime before it was ousted in 2001 and Saudi leaders have acted as intermediaries previously. The U.S.-backed leader, who was heading a delegation that includes new Foreign Minister Zalmay Rasoul and key religious leaders, planned to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, then meet with King Abdullah. The two leaders will discuss Afghanistan, the region and possible "solutions for reconciliation," according to a statement from his...

Despite the lingering demonstrations and disorder in Tehran, Iran’s ruling mullahs are confident anew in their country’s ability to surge to a hegemonic position in the Middle East without a major war. The main reason for the mullahs’ confidence is their interpretation of the appeasement policies of the US Barack Obama Administration. Most significant is the undeclared – yet widely projected – profound change in US policy regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran and all other regional governments are convinced that the US now strives to “contain” a nuclear Iran rather than continue the declared objective to prevent the nuclearization of...

YANKEE, GO HOME by thelastcrusade.org Hamid Karzai, the newly re-elected President of Afghanistan, wants US troops out of his country within five years.Despite the billions of US dollars that have been poured into Afghanistan and the deaths of 922 American soldiers, Mr. Karzai expressed no gratitude to the United States for its part in securing the country and protecting the Afghan people from radical insurgents.To the contrary, Mr. Karzai, in his second inaugural address, called for a national tribal council to seek peace with the Taliban.The peace overture negates the primary purpose of the on-going war, which, according to...

Note to Hamid Karzai: One country's corruption is another country's stimulus package. ... The U.S. government should not throw stones. According to Transparency International's 2009 Global Corruption barometer, the U.S. Congress is the single institution perceived by Americans to be most affected by corruption. The U.S. government reported that $6.4 billion in stimulus money went to 440 nonexistent congressional districts, "creating or saving" around 30,000 phantom jobs. The White House admitted in July that billions of dollars spent in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds might not be traceable.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's main political rival is questioning the president's commitment to fighting corruption. Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah withdrew days ago from a second-round runoff vote because of concerns over fraud. On Tuesday, he said Mr. Karzai's government lacks legitimacy because of the controversial election process that declared Mr. Karzai the winner by default. Abdullah addressed a news conference in Kabul. It followed a similar conference by Mr. Karzai Tuesday in which the president vowed to "make every possible effort" to eradicate government corruption, but also appeared to reject removing high-level officials in any anti-corruption purge.

Afghan election officials said Thursday that there will be more voting centres for next week's presidential runoff than in the fraud-tainted first-round vote in August, rejecting U.N. recommendations to eliminate sites to prevent cheating. The Aug. 20 presidential poll was so tainted by widespread ballot-box stuffing and distorted ballot tallies that fraud investigators threw out more than a million votes, enough to force President Hamid Karzai into a second round against his top challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. Observers and U.N. advisers attributed much of the fraud to so-called ghost polling stations that never opened but returned results or...

WASHINGTON: Afghan President Hamid Karzai is most likely to continue to rule his war-ravaged country for next five years as the majority in Afghanistan sees him as a winnable, although not necessarily the best, candidate for Thursday’s election. Mr Karzai’s alliances with regional power-brokers and his origins as a Pashtun, the biggest Afghan ethnic community, have placed him in a strong position despite widespread public dissatisfaction with the government. A survey carried out by the US-funded International Republican Institute shows Mr Karzai leading a field of three dozen candidates with 44 per cent, against 26 per cent for his closest...

All wars have anthems for doomed youth. Afghanistan is no exception. At a memorial service yesterday, senior officers paid tribute to the eight British soldiers who died in the worst day of attrition since the Falklands. Of the three youngest, William Aldridge had a gift for friendship, Joseph Murphy was a fine artist and James Backhouse, who wanted to be a fitness instructor, could run faster than the wind. Like his two comrades, he was 18 years old. Like them, he was, according to his superiors' eulogies, prepared to kill and to be killed. Helmand province is not the Somme,...

The most pressing issue of the day is this horrifying news that Hamid Karzai is trying to win over the Taliban by signing into law several articles that restrict women’s rights in clear contravention of the constitution’s equality between the sexes. The law would enact a Wahhabist-style of law under which women would be unable to leave the house without permission from their husband, and make marital rape legal. The United Nations Development Fund for Women warns that the law grants custody of children to fathers and grandfathers in the event of disputes as well.